


Abbracciame (Flashforward)

by ayerlind



Series: I Could Live a Little More [15]
Category: Men's Football RPF
Genre: Confusedly horny Dries, Discussing Boundaries, Dom/sub, Dommy Paulo, Dries wants to climb Paulo like a tree, Everyone is Poly Because Spurs, Hand Jobs, Jazzaniga, Kinda, M/M, Masturbation, Mertigne, Mertonghen, Open Relationships, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, alfajores are magic, also y'all Paulo is more than a foot taller than Lore, and because Napoli, but who doesn't lmao, just wanted to throw that out there, subby Jan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-27
Updated: 2020-03-27
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:20:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23344639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ayerlind/pseuds/ayerlind
Summary: November 2019It had been the better part of six months since Jan had told Dries about Paulo and Paulo about Dries, and despite bonding immediately over their shared desire to make Jan squirm, they’d still had to build a relationship of their own from scratch.  There was never any pressure for them to be anything but metamours - separate partners of Jan who had no involvement with each other - but they circled each other, both interested but neither brave enough.Jan called them ‘infuriatingly adorable’.
Relationships: Dries Mertens/Jan Vertonghen, Lorenzo Insigne/Dries Mertens, Paulo Gazzaniga/Dries Mertens, Paulo Gazzaniga/Jan Vertonghen
Series: I Could Live a Little More [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1621807
Comments: 8
Kudos: 19





	Abbracciame (Flashforward)

London

November 2019

Dries let out the tiniest of grumbles when he finally opened his eyes and glared into the darkness. He had been battling wakefulness so valiantly, knowing somewhere in his mind that he couldn't have been sleeping more than two hours or so at most. Surely there was no reason for him to get up yet. 

After resolutely closing his eyes again and lying there for about fifteen seconds, the ache in his bladder was starting to win, and he made a face, really not wanting to extract himself from this little bubble of warmth. 

Dries turned his head to look at the other occupants of the bed, smiling sleepily. Beside him, Jan was on his back, face turned to tuck against Dries’ shoulder. He had fallen asleep holding Dries’ hand, but now their arms were just linked loosely between them underneath the sheets, too warm where their skin was pressed together, but it was too sweet for Dries to mind. On the other side of Jan was the dark lump of extra blankets that housed Paulo, the perpetually chilly. The lump consisted of a fluff of black hair at the top, and one long, strong arm clearly outlined under the sheets, sticking out and wrapped possessively around Jan’s middle. 

Dries sighed. It was wonderful to see Jan so fiercely loved. 

Finally accepting that he was never going to fall back asleep unless he relieved himself and then quite possibly sought out a midnight snack, Dries gently kissed Jan on the forehead and untangled their arms. It was far colder outside the blankets than it had been underneath - he shivered immediately and groped around for whomever’s shirt may have landed conveniently nearby. He peed quickly, then slipped back out of the en suite with his eyes on the door, planning a journey to the kitchen, but he stopped. 

In the absence of Dries, Jan had gravitated back toward Paulo. Both were still fast asleep, but had shifted to share the blankets a bit more evenly, and now - somehow - Jan was the big spoon. Dries was quite sure that if Paulo had been awake to know just how little and innocent and sweet he looked tucked up against Jan like this, he would be all flustered and grumpy about it, but it really was the sweetest thing. 

“Lucky, lucky you,” Dries whispered, smiling tenderly. There was no bitterness to it; sharing Jan with Paulo didn’t mean any less Jan for himself. In fact, in a happy turn of events, this level of security with himself and his marriage that Jan had found had ended up meaning far _more_ Jan for Dries, in every sense.

Dries glanced at his phone sitting on the bedside table, then down at the ball of adorable that was awaiting his return to bed. He thought _really_ hard about taking a picture in order to tease Paulo in the morning, but then thought better of it and just smiled and slipped out.

Here, he faced a dilemma. 

It was actually his first time spending the night at Paulo’s house. Before now, Dries had only been able to visit twice since officially becoming part of the ‘gets to sleep with Jan Vertonghen’ club, and both times, Paulo’s girlfriend had been sick, so all of their congregating had been done at Jan’s. Paulo didn’t have nearly as big of a house as Jan, but it was unfamiliar nonetheless, and he moved hesitantly, trying to both resist accidentally snooping and resist the urge to actively snoop.

Mostly. 

He poked his head through one door that he passed, biting his lip as he did. It was just the guest bath, spartan and clean with light blue walls and dark blue towels hanging by the tub; he felt oddly let down, and he rolled his eyes at himself. What had he been expecting, a dungeon? 

Granted... not the weirdest thought to have, knowing what he did about Paulo and Jan and what they got up to.

When his stomach audibly grumbled, it renewed his focus somewhat, but still he stopped short of the kitchen just as he reached it, smiling at the wall. It was covered in photos; he immediately leaned close, scanning them for Jan, but his smile faltered as he realised why, amongst the photos of Paulo and his girlfriend, a handful of other teammates, their families, and their dog, he didn’t see Jan at all.

Dries sometimes forgot to be grateful for all of the different aspects of what he had back home, but this was a stark reminder. He and Kat had been together forever, but had never been particularly monogamous, and they’d barely been in Naples for five minutes when his and Lorenzo’s relationship somehow just... _happened_. Lore’s pursuit had begun on Dries’ first day, the moment that Dries got a boner and gracelessly fled from him in horror about five minutes into their very first conversation. Less than six hours later, Dries was in Lorenzo’s house, in his bed, tucked happily between him and his wife, bragging to his girlfriend over FaceTime. She came over, all four of them hit it off, and, well... 

And that was some six years ago. For the entirety of his time at Napoli, the entirety of his time with Lorenzo, they had been close. Sure, they slept together first, _then_ got close, but no matter the order of events, the fact remained that they had been openly affectionate from day one, and by now, no one who paid any attention whatsoever batted an eye when they jumped into each other’s arms and kissed each other’s faces and cried on each other’s shoulders. 

It hurt him to think of how Jan had to actively fight against that instinct until they were behind closed doors. 

A soft clicking behind him made him turn and smile. Teo had decided to investigate, his head on a tilt as he padded up to Dries. Dries took another second or two to pull himself away from the photos, then smiled a little sadly down at Teo.

“Yeah,” he said softly, stooping down to scratch behind his ears. He glanced back toward the bedroom and sighed. “Me too.”

Teo followed him into the kitchen and curled up by the back door, watching Dries with clear amusement on his face while Dries gingerly opened cupboards in search of something sweet and snacky - what he _wanted_ , for some reason, was a giant bowl of M&Ms, but he would settle for whatever Paulo had that came close. 

If there _was_ anything. 

“Does he not even have a secret snack cupboard?” Dries eventually complained, glaring over his shoulder at Teo. “I guess you don’t need one when you’re that tall. There’s no need - you just put whatever you’re hiding on top of the nearest building and go about your business.” 

He grinned at his own joke; Teo sighed and rolled onto his side. 

Dries stuck his tongue out. “Thanks,” he said dryly. He pulled open the fridge and stuck his head in. As they should be for a professional footballer, the contents were distressingly healthy, and he let out a dramatic sigh. “Would it kill you to fuck someone who has heard of chocolate, Vertonghen?” he muttered to himself. 

He closed the refrigerator doors with a grunt and turned around, then promptly had a heart attack. Paulo was standing in the doorway, leaning up against it, and Dries legitimately stumbled backwards, heart in his throat and suddenly beating about three times too fast.

“I’ve heard of chocolate,” Paulo said mildly. 

_“Paulo!”_ hissed Dries. Once he had finished swearing in some unholy combination of English, Dutch, French, and Italian, he finally breathed, putting both hands over his heart. He leaned back against the door of the fridge and scowled at Paulo, who, long and lean and wearing naught but navy boxers and a smirk, was legitimately dangerous for his health. 

Paulo raised one eyebrow. _“¿Sí?”_

“How are you so _quiet?”_ demanded Dries. “And what are you doing?”

Paulo’s smirk went nowhere. “What are _you_ doing? This is _my_ house.” 

Dries felt a flash of nerves at his words, but they were at odds with the tone of his voice. Paulo didn’t look angry, just amused, his eyebrows still up and his muscular arms crossed over his bare chest, smiling one of his devastatingly hot little smiles that Dries _knew_ Paulo was perfectly aware of the effects of. 

Dries hummed thoughtfully, then pouted at him - for all that he was able to pout while actively trying to hide his own impish grin. He had really never gone one-on-one with Paulo in any scenario - he’d not tried to hide it particularly well that he loved watching the D/s dynamic between Paulo, Jan, and Toby, found it absurdly hot when Paulo gave them orders, found it even hotter how desperate they were to follow them. It had never been the thing for Dries, though. He’d tried it a few times throughout his life, with Kat, with Lore, with others, just to see - but he just could never come to terms with being under someone else’s thumb. Overall, he prided himself on being somewhat unflappable, but someone trying to literally control him was about the edge of what he would stand for.

Jan, to his credit, had tried twice now to explain a little more in depth, show him that it really had less to do with control than he thought. It still made him antsy, the idea of having someone tell him what things he could and couldn’t do, particularly when the things were of so little consequence, like whether or not he was allowed to touch his own hair throughout the day or whether his Dom was the only one. 

Those inconsequential things, though, appeared to be Jan’s favourite, for whatever reason. Dries had been immediately informed, for instance, just how hot, rough, and amazing the sex had been (not to mention how many times they had it) after he’d successfully followed that particular order. 

Dries narrowed his eyes, making his pout-smirk more of a challenge. “Well, I’m hungry.” He crossed his arms and shifted his glance innocently off toward the wall. “I’d have not to look if you knew how to take care of your guest.”

When he turned his impish look back onto Paulo, he just found Paulo staring intently. 

Paulo blinked at him a couple of times - and why did _that_ make Dries want to fall over? - then pushed himself off of the doorframe. When he took a step in, the kitchen seemed to get much, much smaller, and Dries felt a little thrill in his belly. 

Oh.

“Well,” Paulo said softly. “What does it mean for you, ‘taking care’?” The smirk was back, and Dries quite suddenly realised that his mouth was dry. He wasn’t really angling for that. Of course, now that he was thinking about it, he wasn’t exactly _not_ angling for it, either. Or was that even what Paulo meant? And when did Dries start blushing? 

This was definitely a situation where Dries should be clever. He had four languages at his disposal; surely he could find words in one of them, even if they were only words about how fucking tall Paulo was and how goddamn pretty his eyes were. Not that this was new information, and not that he ever had to go very long without exchanging pictures with Paulo and Jan whenever he was still in Naples, but as rarely as he got to see Paulo in person, he always got struck all over again by how gorgeous he was. 

“Dries.”

Whew. Also filed under ‘struck all over again’ - the sound of Paulo saying his name. It was a single syllable, not a terribly complex one, but from Paulo it sounded like thunder, rolling ahead of a hard and refreshing rain. 

It wasn’t until Paulo actually let out a soft laugh that Dries realised he was just standing there and staring at him, trying not to melt. 

“Shut up,” Dries said, blush deepening exponentially. “You know you’re gorgeous.”

Paulo laughed harder, a hand over his mouth to muffle it, and Dries scowled. He snatched a hand towel off of the worktop, fully intent on using it to whack him in the face, but he had to reach up so absurdly high in order to do it that Paulo was giggling at him, easily dodging Dries's attempts to swat him. He was not above playing dirty, though, and Paulo's ribs were conveniently accessible for tickling. Paulo's giggles became more frantic as Dries dug his fingertips into Paulo's sides, he was trying to swat Dries away, and they both tried to shush themselves and each other so that they wouldn’t wake up Jan.

When they settled enough, Dries gave Paulo one final weak shove, rolling his eyes. Paulo grinned and pulled Dries against his side, scratching him affectionately on the back of the head and nodding toward the refrigerator. “I’ll make something. I’m hungry, too.”

Dries made a happy noise and a grand gesture for Paulo to go right ahead. He hopped up to sit on the worktop beside the fridge, grinning at the sidelong look that Paulo gave him. 

“What? This is the best seat for taste testing along the way, no?” 

Paulo opened the fridge and began to scan the shelves, but something in his lovely eyes was shuttered, a little less playful than it had been. It wasn’t even that stern look that he got when Jan was being bratty - it was just a sort of nonspecific, but genuine upset. 

“Unless you don’t want me to,” Dries pressed gently. “Okay, I don’t take orders, but it doesn’t mean I don’t take requests. I’m in the way?” 

Paulo sighed, looking torn. “No,” he admitted. “Not in the way. I just don’t like people to be around and watch me cook.”

Dries made a sad noise, but he supposed he understood. Everything that they did professionally was already scrutinised on a nearly global scale, so it made sense that he wouldn’t want anyone hovering around him at home as well, making every single thing that he did their business.

On the other hand, he _liked_ watching Paulo, damnit. 

“Fine, fine, I know you’re a shy little thing under all that...” Dries gestured appreciatively, then gave up and just made eyes at him. “Mmph. Rugged power. So then don’t cook.” He reached over and shut the refrigerator door, forcing Paulo out of the space and grinning proudly at the intensity of the glare that Paulo pinned him with. “Come on, it’s the middle of the night. You don’t have anything that we can just _eat?_ Bonus points if it’s chocolate.” 

Paulo’s long, deep sigh made Dries feel rather smug. 

“Fine. Close your eyes.” 

Dries raised his eyebrows. "Should I be scared?" he teased, but as a show of good faith, he did so. He heard a drawer open somewhere off to his left, then close, and then heard Paulo grumble something to himself in Spanish. 

“Open.”

Paulo’s voice was suddenly _much_ closer. Dries opened his eyes and made a soft noise - Paulo was standing in front of him and holding a chocolate sandwich cookie, massive and clearly homemade, about two inches from his lips. “Ooh,” he said appreciatively, looking past it and up at him to grin.

“ _Alfajores_ ,” Paulo said. “My brother makes them better than anyone.” When Dries opened his mouth expectantly, Paulo leveled a look at him, and this one _was_ stern. “If you didn’t keep your eyes closed, please do not tell Jan and Toby where they are. I can’t trust Toby around chocolate, and I can’t trust Jan not to tell him about it.”

Dries couldn’t help giggling at how adorable that was. He was all too well aware of how Toby’s big, beautiful eyes could make someone spill government secrets, should they happen to be in possession of any. “I closed them,” he promised.

Paulo smiled down at him, no longer with that almost predatory air, but one of his gentle, sweet smiles, the kind that made his eyes crinkle and sparkle. “Thank you,” he said. 

Dries grinned back, but he only let the space of a second go by before he raised his eyebrows. “If you’re going to stay this close to me, though, you’re going to need to either feed me or kiss me. Or both.” 

With a soft laugh, Paulo closed the short distance between them, leaning against the worktop between Dries’ knees so that they were just about chest to chest. He held the cookie to Dries’ lips again and Dries opened his mouth eagerly, then took a bite, closing his eyes and humming appreciatively at the sweetness of the dulce de leche on his tongue. It was tasty enough to make him wiggle a little where he sat.

Paulo chuckled again. “Good, no?”

Dries swallowed the mouthful and nodded, then licked his lips slowly. “Very,” he said. He opened his mouth for more, but Paulo bit off half of what remained, smirking and holding the rest out of reach when Dries scoffed. “You’re mean,” he complained, pouting and reaching upwards in vain. 

Rather than give any kind of answer, Paulo dipped his head down to meet Dries as he stretched, catching him in a kiss. Paulo tasted of dulce de leche and of Jan - well, probably not really, but that was the first thing that Dries thought of when Paulo’s tongue slid teasingly against his own, and when he grinned against Dries’ lips and wound his fingers into the front of the t-shirt that Dries had picked up from the floor. Somewhere in his mind, swimming through the rising tide of warmth that was coursing through him, Dries realised that it was Paulo’s. 

Abandoning all thoughts of the _alfajor_ for the time being, Dries wound his arms around Paulo’s neck and hummed contentedly into the kiss, lifting his chin and tilting his head to get closer. For all that Paulo was all dominant and gigantic and occasionally intimidating, his kisses were extraordinarily sweet. He nuzzled his nose against Dries’, ran his hand warmly up his back and into his hair, petting the soft bristle while his thumb ran along the shell of Dries’ ear, making him shiver. 

“Cold?” teased Paulo, not pulling back more than a couple of centimetres. Still, Dries was quick to hook his legs around the back of Paulo’s thighs, scooting to the edge of the worktop so that he had more real estate with which to cling. 

“Oh, no no. The opposite,” he promised. He was very, _very_ warm, and very content to stay so. He put a little pressure into the arms he had wrapped around Paulo’s neck, but nothing more than to reinforce that they were there. “You’re not allowed to go anywhere.”

Paulo tipped his head back and sighed dramatically at the ceiling. His hand tightened in Dries’ hair and he gave him an affectionate shake. “Just so you know,” he rumbled, pulling back enough to look into Dries’ eyes (and Dries valiantly refrained from letting out an actual teenage girl sigh), “if Jan or Toby talk to me like this, they would be punished.”

Dries smirked, feeling victorious. “Oh really? That’s dangerous information to just give away to someone like me,” he warned impishly, poking Paulo gently in the chest with one finger. From there he flattened his palms against Paulo’s warm skin and ran them down his torso and back up, stopping to thumb his nipples to attention, over the curve of his broad shoulders, his biceps - which Paulo flexed under his touch, making him bite down on a grin, humming appreciatively. “Then again, there’s a lot about you that’s dangerous, yeah?”

Paulo grinned back, and then they were kissing again, a little less gentle, a little less sweet. Paulo hadn’t exactly let go of Dries’ hair yet, and he used the hand buried in it to guide Dries’ head to the side, kissing his way down his neck, nipping here and there - a bit more frequently when Dries accidentally let out a soft, happy little mewl at the attention. 

“Ah. You can say you are not mine,” Paulo said around the skin still between his teeth, “but you love it when I leave my mark on you, no?”

Dries dug deep and found the presence of mind to at least let out an indignant little _hmph_ \- but then, Paulo wasn’t entirely wrong. Despite his lack of involvement in the dynamic between Jan, Toby, and Paulo, Dries knew that Paulo had begun to consider him to be one of ‘his’, just as the two of them were. And Paulo wasn’t wrong about the wording bothering him still, but Dries was beginning to learn what it actually meant - that he was safe here, that his happiness was important to Paulo, that Paulo wanted him too, just as he wanted Jan and Toby. 

And yes, Dries loved to take reminders of that home with him.

Just to be difficult, though, he sighed in mock exasperation, grinning when Paulo growled against his neck. But still he whispered, “Yes, I do,” because he liked Paulo very much, and knew that Paulo in turn liked to be answered. 

Paulo growled again, but in an entirely different way - a contented rumble, like something deep inside found absolute satisfaction in hearing those words from him. With a final sting of teeth, he abandoned his assault on Dries’ neck to stand up straight, his striking eyes dark and heavy-lidded as he leaned over Dries at his full height, using the grip on Dries’ short curls to angle his head back until Paulo could dip down and kiss him again, slowly and sweetly.

And okay, maybe Dries _did_ understand what Jan liked about the hair thing. _Fuck_. 

When they parted, Paulo’s grin was hungry. It only grew sharper at the soft sigh of a whimper that he dragged out of Dries, who needed little more than just the way Paulo towered over him to feel a surge of heat pool in his belly, throbbing and yearning. Dries bit his lip, watching Paulo’s eyes zero in on the action, and he smirked. 

“Hey,” he whispered, daring to reach up and run his fingers through Paulo’s hair.

To his delight, Paulo only leaned into the touch, biting his own lip now and nuzzling Dries’ hand and looking like he would be purring if he could. “Hmm?”

Dries gave him an impish grin. “Can we go wake up Jan?”

Paulo laughed softly. To Dries’ disappointment, he let go of Dries’ hair, hand moving to cup his jaw and gently stroke through his beard until he was pinching Dries by the chin. He held him there for a final light peck and grinned back. “Oh _, sí_ , _mi gatito_. I like this idea.”

That word was close enough to its Italian counterpart that Dries blushed happily without needing a translation. It felt significant, somehow - it had been the better part of six months since Jan had told Dries about Paulo and Paulo about Dries, and despite bonding immediately over their shared desire to make Jan squirm, they’d still had to build a relationship of their own from scratch. There was never any pressure for them to be anything but metamours - separate partners of Jan who had no involvement with each other - but they circled each other, both interested but neither brave enough, always communicating through Jan unless it was _about_ Jan. 

Dries, for his part, had mostly been terrified of making anything awkward between Jan and Paulo, or worse, of crossing some line with Paulo that could make things awkward between Dries and Jan. Dries couldn’t bear the thought of anything hurting his relationship with Jan. 

It had taken them almost half the summer to even start talking regularly on their own, to start flirting in earnest. There was a strange duality to their relationship - from day one, it was inherently sexual where Jan was concerned, and they teased each other for the sole purpose of Jan’s reactions. Without Jan, though, they both ended up being as cautious and bashful in approaching intimacy as they would be with a conventional relationship. Even by this time, Dries’ third visit, he and Paulo had both been somewhat diffident when they had all tangled up on the couch to watch a movie the previous night, both wanting to cuddle but neither quite familiar enough with each other’s touch boundaries outside of bed. 

Jan called them ‘infuriatingly adorable’. 

It was really just a little thing, Paulo giving him a pet name. But Toby was his _cielito_ , Jan his _pelirrojito_ \- joining them on that level, being his _gatito_ \- it seemed like a milestone, like all of this, really. They were so rarely in the same place, and even more rarely in the same place without Jan in between them. They had never really had a chance to explore _their_ physical chemistry, and it had been, if he were honest, one of the biggest question marks that hung over the evolution of their relationship. 

His free hand joined the one that was already running through Paulo’s hair and Paulo straightened his neck so that he could push into the touch. It made Dries laugh, and he trailed his fingertips down Paulo’s cheeks, his neck, his shoulders, his chest. They came to rest at his waist, and Dries looked up at him again, lower lip caught between his teeth. 

“Paulo?”

_“¿Sí?”_

His smirk widening playfully, Dries gently dug in his fingertips, biting down on a mischievous giggle when Paulo squirmed away and scowled. “Are there any more _alfajores?”_

A laugh from across the kitchen made them jump. Paulo spun around, Dries peeked around him, and they found a bright pink Jan, very visibly hard underneath the grey joggers he was wearing, hurriedly extracting his hand from within them and looking quite perturbed for giving himself away. 

Dries raised his eyebrows slowly. “Hey,” he said, and he held the straight face for about three seconds before he couldn’t stop the grin that was yearning to overtake it. Jan looked around, everywhere except for at them, but equally unable to stop the smirk that was pulling at his lips. 

“Hey,” he said as nonchalantly as possible - other than his voice being _significantly_ higher than usual. 

Paulo turned all the way around and leaned back into Dries, who hummed happily, wrapping his arms around Paulo from behind. His hands ended up somewhere around Paulo’s navel and he idly stroked the soft trail of hair that led downwards to the waistband of his boxers. “Jan, come here,” said Paulo. Dries shivered at the command in his voice, and by the nearly imperceptible chuckle that shook Paulo in his arms, he knew that Paulo had felt it. 

Dries pinched him under the navel and grinned into the back of his shoulder when Paulo squirmed again, rumbling something under his breath. 

When Jan came over to them, Paulo held his hand out for Jan’s. He pulled him into his arms to wrap him up tightly, kissing his cheek and his forehead, and Jan nuzzled against him. 

“You know, the whole point of me so carefully budgeting my time and so selflessly skipping training tomorrow instead of flying back after just two days was so that you don’t _have_ to just stand in the doorway touching yourself,” Dries teased. He reached over Paulo’s shoulder and ran his fingers through Jan’s hair, sweeping a soft touch across his forehead. 

Jan made a little noise, tucking his head into Paulo’s neck. “I woke up alone,” he complained, “and then I come out here and you’re making out with my boyfriend without me. What was I supposed to do?”

“I don’t know, join us?” 

Jan shook his head stubbornly, opening his mouth to respond, then deflated with a high, soft sigh. Confused, Dries shifted to hook his chin over Paulo’s other shoulder, looking down, and he felt a tingle spread both inward and outward from his belly - Paulo’s hand had disappeared down the front of Jan’s trousers and had picked up where Jan had left off, stroking almost lazily. “I’ve never gotten to see you two like that,” Jan murmured, and then stumbled over himself with a tiny gasp before he could continue his thought. “It was too sexy to interrupt.” 

Dries made a considering noise, most of his attention laser focused on where Paulo’s wrist was covered by the elastic band of Jan’s joggers, the movement below steady and strong. “Yeah,” he murmured distractedly. “That’s... understandable...”

Jan laughed softly, then pressed a couple of kisses against Paulo’s skin, running his fingers up and down from elbow to wrist of the arm that was doing all the work right now. Paulo hummed contentedly into his hair, and Jan tipped his head up, kissing Paulo’s cheek. “Mmm... hey,” he said, and he tilted his head, pouting, his summer blue eyes sweet and soft with sleep when Paulo paused and looked at him. “Were you really going to share _alfajores_ with Dries and not with me?” 

Paulo groaned, and for _some_ strange reason, glared at Dries over his shoulder.

Dries made an indignant noise. “What?”

“‘What?’” Paulo parroted grumpily. “‘What’ is I literally stand here with his dick in my hand, but all he wants? _Alfajores._ I blame you.” By the time he was looking back down at Jan, though, he was chuckling. “No, _schatje._ The last piece, I was saving for you,” he said. He twisted and reached around behind Dries, and when he pulled the remaining third of the massive cookie out from under the dish towel that Dries had attempted to smack him with earlier, Dries gasped, then pouted spectacularly. 

“You hid that right behind me?” 

Paulo smirked - which was not fair, because Dries had it on very good authority that his pout was nigh irresistible. “I knew you were distracted,” Paulo said mildly. Dries gave him an indignant scoff, but Paulo only winked before facing forward again. Tipping his head downward, Paulo nuzzled against Jan until he got him to look up. “Open,” he said, and Jan obeyed, humming appreciatively as he was fed. Once he had chewed and swallowed, he took it upon himself to lovingly clean the crumbs from Paulo’s long fingers, one by one, his cheeks hollowing and his tongue obviously working hard enough to make Paulo squirm.

Dries wasn’t sure what was hotter, the look on Jan’s face, or the look on Paulo’s. 

“I feel like an argument could be made,” he said a bit breathlessly, adjusting himself, “that he wants more than just a cookie.”

Paulo still made a tiny indignant noise and brought up one hand to run through Jan’s hair and down the side of his face, thumb caressing his cheekbone. “The both of you. Only kissing me until I give you dessert. You’re lucky I’m in such a good mood, _schatje,”_ he rumbled, although Dries was pretty sure he hadn’t actually dragged his eyes away from Jan’s beautiful lips yet. Dries could see Jan blush, as well as the disappointment in his eyes when Paulo reclaimed his fingers. “Enough - you keep doing this, you risk me throwing you down on the floor.”

“...And you have a problem with that why?” prompted Dries with a grin. 

Paulo dropped his head and groaned in despair. “Because the floor is dirty and I am hungry. Maybe,” he added to Jan, but tipping his head so that it was obvious he was also indirectly addressing Dries, “if you ask our very beautiful - and very brave,” he added dryly, with a look that made Jan blush again, “little kitten here, he’ll keep you entertained in the living room while I actually make us something.” 

Dries was a little loath to go, making Jan physically pull him down from the worktop and pretty much drag him away from Paulo, just to be difficult. Once they were in the living room and Jan had pulled him down onto the couch, though, Dries was surprised to find him looking a bit more serious, and he set aside his plans for ‘entertaining’, as Paulo had put it. 

“Jantje?” he prompted. 

Jan leaned back into the cushions and glanced toward the kitchen; Dries followed his gaze. Paulo had unearthed a pair of black joggers from the basket on the kitchen table, but was mercifully still shirtless, head in the fridge again and paying them no mind. Dries made an appreciative noise, Jan made a similar one in response, and they both just watched him for a few seconds more before Jan gently tugged on Dries’ arm, pulling him back into a warm cuddle against his side. 

“Love you,” Dries murmured, tipping his head so that he could kiss Jan’s shoulder. 

“No, you.” Jan pressed a kiss into Dries’ curls, resting his head on them, and Dries made another little sound, this one just content. 

If only he could have Jan, Paulo, Kat, and Lorenzo all in one place. The world would be perfect. 

And then Jan sighed. 

“Kitten,” he started, and Dries felt his heart sink. He tipped his head up enough to show that he was listening, and Jan shifted their position a little, wrapping an arm around him and pulling him close enough that he could reach for Dries’ hand, too. “Could you do me a favour?”

That confused Dries enough that he looked at Jan for real. “Anything,” he answered automatically. 

Jan squeezed his hand, bringing it up to kiss the back of it. “I know you’re not a submissive and so does Paulo. You already know that, no?”

Brow furrowing even further, Dries nodded. 

“I know it’s important to you that you make that clear, especially since he can be a little...” Jan peeked over the top of Dries’ head toward the kitchen, taking his time with an appreciative sparkle in his eyes, then hummed consideringly. “Imposing.”

Dries arched an eyebrow. “A little?”

“Fine,” Jan said with a soft laugh. “Fine, he can come off as terrifying. Even when we’re not in a session, even to people who already know what an absolute... I don’t know, what a puppy he is.” Jan bit down on a smirk and cast another glance toward the kitchen to make sure Paulo hadn’t heard, looking like a kid who didn’t want to get caught swearing. 

Dries had to giggle at that. 

“But yeah, it can be intimidating. Toby once said there’s something about him that just makes you want to obey him whether you _want_ to want to or not.” 

Dries grunted out a little ‘huh’ - as little sense as the sentence made, Jan wasn’t wrong. He hadn’t really put the uneasy feeling into words, but suddenly those were the right ones. For the most part, he had just been trying to be cute, but maybe he had been a little bit of an asshole, too - and not just tonight, but for most of his visit - in trying to push back so hard against something that might not really be happening the way that he thought it was. 

“I’m not _scared_ of him,” Dries muttered a bit indignantly, regardless, mostly on principle. Had he not just been moments away from breaking out the ropes and carabiners in order to scale Mount Paulo when Jan had made his presence known? 

“That’s not what I meant, Driesje,” Jan said. His placating tone was even more annoying, but damn him for being one of Dries’ favourite people in the world, because the only instinct that Dries had for comfort was to get Jan’s arms around him and hear his voice whether he was the reason Dries was upset or not. Apparently Jan could feel it, because he lifted and kissed Dries’ hand again; somewhere through the tremor of his nerves, Dries appreciated that Jan knew him so well. “And no one _wants_ you scared of him. That’s not what this is about.”

“I know.” It was more defensive than the truth, though, and he knew that Jan knew it. 

“Why would we expect you to know something no one’s told you?” Jan asked gently. “I learned about all of this for the first time once, too. And about Paulo.”

Embarrassed regardless, Dries tucked his face into Jan’s neck and Jan, if it was even physically possible, cuddled him closer. “I’m sorry, Jantje.”

“I promise you, it’s okay.” A kiss landed in Dries’ hair as Jan’s arms tightened, and he managed a tiny smile. “Come here - I know you already know that you have to talk about these things more openly in this kind of relationship. And that establishing boundaries isn’t criticism.”

“Yeah...”

“And I can’t say I blame you.” Jan brought Dries’ hand to his lips again, but this time instead of a kiss, he gently bit the side of Dries’ thumb. Dries jumped and fully sat up to look at him, finding Jan with his cheeks pink and eyes sparkling, grinning impishly back at him. “I _know_ how beautiful he is when he’s angry.”

Dries blinked. 

“So trust me,” Jan went on, leaning on the words. “I don’t blame you for it. But, I know it bothers him. He adores you,” Jan reiterated quickly, just as Dries’ heart began to sink again. “I swear. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t stand for it at all.” Jan grinned and pushed his nose into Dries’ temple, making him chuckle despite himself. “You,” he said lovingly, “just happen to be cute enough to get away with it.” 

They shared little grins and both looked at Paulo again. This time they found him already watching them, and even from the other room, feeling Paulo’s eyes on him was enough to make Dries blush all the way from the outside in. Paulo winked and kissed the air in their general direction and Dries smiled sappily when Jan returned the gesture. 

“It just hurts me to see him upset,” Jan said softly. “Even a little. About anything.” Dries understood the love in his eyes, finding them still glued to Paulo even though he was going about his business once again. “Toby and I show him respect the way we do because we genuinely feel he deserves it, and we genuinely love him and want him happy. It’s not about control, it’s not about fear, it’s about _that_.” 

“Groot,” Dries said softly, squeezing his hand. “You _know_ I understand. If I found out he was doing something that upset you, I would be sitting him down to have this same conversation. Even if he _were_ terrifying. Which he isn’t.” He smiled when Jan chuckled, then glanced toward the kitchen again. “Did he tell you to-- I mean, have you... talked about it? This?” 

“No, why?”

“If he knows you’re talking to me about it now, I want to go apologise so he knows that I heard you.” Dries looked earnestly up at Jan, but he blushed when Jan’s eyes shone with fondness. Jan let go of his hand so that he could hold him lightly by the chin, bringing him up in order to kiss him. 

“He doesn’t,” Jan assured him softly. “This is all me just... knowing him. Which means you can stay right here, no?” Jan kissed him again, and then again, each of them firm and sweet, full of the reassuring promise that no one was irrevocably upset, that everything was still as wonderful between them as it had been five minutes ago, that Dries was just as loved. 

Dries melted into him, awkward of a twist as it was. Jan made a compelling point. “Mmm... yeah, okay.” 

Guided by Jan pulling gently on his arm, Dries pulled his legs up onto the couch so that he could straighten out for a better kissing angle. Once there, though, he had a much better idea, and simply threw one leg over both of Jan’s, sliding into his lap and grinning at the surprise on his face as it blossomed into a grin. 

“Besides,” Dries added, trailing a soft touch down Jan’s bare chest, “I happen to remember that he doesn’t like people watching him in the kitchen, anyway, so it’s better to wait, yeah?”

Jan gasped playfully, then pulled back just enough to pinch Dries’ cheek. “See?” he teased. “You _can_ be nice.”

Dries scoffed, glanced down, glanced back up, then pinched Jan’s nipple. 

Eyes flying wide open, Jan yelped and batted at him, squirming in his seat with a pained groan. “What happened to nice?” he demanded through a laugh. 

“You started it!” 

“By doing what? _You_ started it!” 

Dries scoffed and slapped him in the shoulder. “Bullshit!”

Jan slapped him back, gently but on the cheek, and when Dries gaped dramatically at him, Jan made the same face back at him, although his eyes were bright with mirth. 

“Jan Vertonghen!”

“Oh, you big baby.”

Dries scoffed, glared, and immediately went for the dirty play, digging his fingertips into Jan’s stomach and sides until he squawked and doubled over. Dries grabbed him by the arms and wrestled him down, grunting at the very real effort that both of them were putting into it. For all that he was significantly slighter, he had Jan beat - just barely - when it came to upper body strength. And he was a scrappier fighter.

“Ow, fuck!” Jan whined, but he was still laughing breathlessly, and he paid Dries back for his cruelly placed knee by tilting his hips to the side, putting Dries just off balance enough to drag him down into a messy headlock, one arm around the top of his chest and the other around his actual head instead of his neck. 

Most of Dries’ resulting screech was muffled into Jan’s arm, but Jan’s indignant yelp when Dries bit him wasn’t.

“Dries!”

“I couldn’t breathe!” Dries laughed. 

“Jan,” Paulo said sharply from the kitchen, making both of them freeze. “ _Las ventanas_ , eh?”

Jan abruptly let go of Dries, who collapsed onto his chest, both of them breathless and hot. Despite the unceremonious end to their roughhousing, Jan was still huffing out hushed giggles, and Dries wriggled around until he was on his side, wedged between Jan and the back of the couch, and could actually see Jan now and grin at him. Jan was flushed regardless from the exertion, but he definitely had an extra blush going down his chest, and his lower lip caught guiltily between his teeth. 

“Yes, sir, sorry,” called Jan, but he was still chuckling and his eyes still sparkled as his hand came up to lazily run through Dries’ hair and down through his beard. 

“What did he say?”

“It’s still warm enough outside that Paulo likes to keep the windows open.” Jan gestured across the room at the curtains on either side of the entertainment centre, which were rippling and rustling in the gentle breeze coming through from outside. “FIFA gets intense with me and Tobes when we spend the night here, since both of us have the kids and can’t really let it out when we play at home...” Jan was either still blushing, or he was blushing again, and Dries almost missed the next thing that he said, because Jan looked at him to smile and he got just a little bit preoccupied falling in love with Jan’s eyes all over again. “He doesn’t like having to repeatedly tell us that we’re disturbing the neighbours and to be quiet.”

Dries grinned mischievously. “And what happens if you’re not?” he prodded.

The blush reached Jan’s ears almost immediately, and Dries laughed. 

“Ooh, it’s that bad, is it? Or that good?” 

“Driesje,” whined Jan. 

“I think if you don’t want to tell me, it’s fine.” Dries sighed, finally stretching himself out fully alongside Jan and settling in for comfort, propping his head up. “I’ll just try to guess.”

“Jesus.”

“So close,” Dries said sadly. He rested his hand over Jan’s heart, watching his chest rise and fall, gently petting the sparse cinnamon-coloured hair that dusted his torso. He hummed, then shot Jan a wicked smile. “Well, if it’s about that pretty mouth--”

“You know what?” interrupted Jan. Dries bit down on his grin. “We’ve been down this road before. You do _not_ get to guess. You and your supernatural abilities--”

“Ten euros says he gags you.” 

“Goddamnit,” Jan said, and Dries threw his head back to laugh, only barely remembering in time to clap his hands over his mouth and hold it in as much as possible. “You are such trouble.” Eyes narrowed consideringly, Jan eventually let out a _hmph_. “Fine. But you’re only half right, so I’m only giving you five euros. Yes, Toby and I both have gags that can be attached to our collars.” When Dries looked at him, Jan winked. “But he only gags us if we’ve been good otherwise.”

Dries raised his eyebrows, feeling a little spark of intrigue flare to life in his belly. It didn’t help that Jan’s hand had snuck under his shirt and begun drifting softly up and down his lower back. “If you’ve been _good?_ ” 

Jan hummed an affirmative, then flashed a wicked little smile and craned his neck enough that he could kiss the shell of Dries’ ear, making him blush. “Mmhmm. Because if we haven’t, there’s no gag, but we still don’t get to make any noise.” Another kiss. “At all.” And another. “No matter what he does to us.” 

Dries’ poor confused dick, which had been going up and down about as much in the past half hour as it had in the past day, began to valiantly throb once again. Even without specifics, it sounded exceptionally hot, and he did readily admit to loving the whole collar thing - he’d almost had a heart attack when he saw Toby wearing his for the first time on his last visit.

(He had quite possibly also sent a close-up of the collar to Lorenzo, asking whether he’d ever wear something like that for Dries. Lorenzo’s response had been several lines of laughing emojis, which Dries found rather rude. 

Mysteriously, when Dries decided to get his way regardless by just wheedling him to wear a tie instead for Dries to yank him around by, Lore was _completely_ into it.) 

“Hold on, hold on. I can really only handle one of these scenarios at a time, Groot,” Dries said. He wriggled, trying to adjust himself, but all he ended up doing was stimulating himself into involuntarily pressing forward, seeking friction against the outside of Jan’s thigh. “Fuck,” he sighed, and then grinned when Jan laughed. “Evil. Okay. Start with the gags and collars, and no skipping the juicy stuff.

“Okay, well... just like the collars, we’re not allowed to touch them ourse--” Jan cut himself off with a gigantic yawn, then finished, mumbling, “--selves. Sorry, fuck. That got un-sexy pretty fast.”

Dries giggled softly, unable to blame him. It was still the middle of the night, after all. 

“C’mere,” Dries murmured. He picked his head up in search of a kiss and was given one, slow and adoring, both of them caught in a haze that was half-arousal, half-sleepiness. When they parted, Dries smiled tenderly at how heavy Jan’s eyelids were. “Alright, close your eyes for a bit, Jantje, yes?” he whispered. He wrapped a leg and arm over Jan like an annoying little blanket - he was certainly intent on staying draped atop him like one. “Tell me everything in the morning. I promise it’ll still be just as sexy.”

“But Paulo,” Jan mumbled. At odds with his protest, his eyelids fluttered closed and he stretched a little, the way he did when he intended to sleep, but his face kept that distressed little moue, the fine line between his brows and the pout that Dries wanted to kiss - so he did. 

“I’ll wake you when he’s done cooking.” Dries dropped a few extra kisses onto Jan’s chest, then pressed his face into it, inhaling his beautifully familiar scent. “Just nap a little.”

“Mmkay... thanks, kitten...” Jan sounded mostly asleep already and Dries smiled, putting his head on Jan’s chest again and fighting the desire to close his own eyes - for the few seconds he was able before they just closed of their own accord. 

“Any time,” he promised softly. 

  
  


***

Epilogue (by [AmethystFox](https://archiveofourown.org/users/amethystfox/pseuds/amethystfox))

"Jan," Paulo called. "Dries. The food is ready."

When no one answered, Paulo frowned and poked his head into the living room, wiping his hands on a towel, but he stopped short and snorted in disgust at the sight that waited for him there.

Paulo shook his head, grumbling under his breath in Spanish about annoying Belgians. He returned to the kitchen long enough to put away the food and pile the dishes in the sink, then he made a quick trip to the linen closet for extra pillows and blankets before returning to the living room.

He smiled rather tenderly at the pair of them, Dries laying half-sprawled across Jan, both fast asleep. He carefully tucked a blanket around them and dropped soft kisses on their faces before he got as comfortable as possible in his makeshift nest of pillows and blankets on the floor next to the occupied couch. His back would probably be a bit stiff in the morning, but that was infinitely preferable to trying to sleep in his bed alone, and he wouldn't dream of waking his sweet Belgian boys.

Paulo burrowed down into the heap of blankets he had brought, content just to be close to them. Right before he dozed off, he opened his eyes once more, noticing that one of them-- he couldn't tell who-- had shifted on the couch and now had an arm dangling over the side, with his fingers only centimetres from Paulo's face. Paulo wormed his way closer, nuzzling his face under the unidentified hand, kissing the knuckles, and drifted off to sleep with one of his lovers' fingers resting on his cheek.

**Author's Note:**

> First and most importantly, thank you to my wonderbestie Amethyst for the beta, the encouragement, the squee, and the hand-holding.  
> Second, big thank you to catmanu, whose comments keep us super excited to post stuff. :3 Most of the reason I pushed myself to get this actually postable was because I teased it to you and then felt bad it was taking so long. >.>
> 
> The title comes from the song of the same name by Andrea Sannino. It means "hug me" and is [pretty much Dries' favorite song in the world](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXu_-0ptrk4).


End file.
